First shoot with HiLite and studio flashes - placement advice

chrisgeary

chrisgeary

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Hi all,

So I'm taking my HiLite, train and three Lencarta heads to my sister's tomorrow for a test shoot. I'm using her and her family as willing subjects!

My intentions are to light the hilite with a single head in from one side pointing to the rear. I was able to successfully light the hilite with a single Nikon speedlight located in the centre so am I going to get away with a single head to one side?

Next, I'm not sure what to do at the front. Given that my nephew is only 3, he is likely to move around randomly. Should I cover the front with the remaining two heads and their softboxes slightly above the camera position and to each side?
Or just use a single head above and to one side?

I'm assuming that both will be preferable as light will fall off as he moves around and if I bring in the entire family (3) I'll have less chance of shadows.

Any advice gratefully received.

Chris
 
You will need one light to light the train..

So 1 light in hilite, 1 on subject and 1 on train.

Never used a train so i dont know exactly how to position this ??

:)
 
You will probably end up with the train looking gray in the pictures no matter what you do, but i use light room with the exposure brush with auto mask selected and you can just mop all of the bits that are not right.

I use 1 250 light in hilite
1 500 light with an oct box
1 500 light with square softbox.

Works fine but just check that it is all bright enough and make sure that when you photo the small ones to get down to their level or below to get less floor in...!

Mac
 
Either side....

lets see if this works...

...........[____________] (=





........=).....................(=
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(= flash
^ = Me..!
 
Place ONE softbox wherever it gives you the lighting effect you want to achieve.
If the shadows are too strong for you, place the reflector in the opposite position where it will pick up 'spare' light and direct it into the shadow areas.
If you're not happy with that, place the second softbox in the fill light position which is where the camera is, either above or below the camera but not to one side.
 
Garry,

How does that work with couples or groups. Would an 80cm softbox be enough because a keylight would cause more of a shadow for one of the subjects, would it not...?
 
I just had my first shoot with my hilite last week. I used 2 interfit venus 300w flashes in the hilite, A 300w with snoot to light along the join with the train and the main light was another 300w in a large octabox. I still had to do a bit of lightening of the train but apart from that it worked ok.
 
crashtestmac said:
Garry,

How does that work with couples or groups. Would an 80cm softbox be enough because a keylight would cause more of a shadow for one of the subjects, would it not...?
Click to expand...
Generally it works with couples but becomes more of a problem as the group gets larger, and a larger and larger sofbox becomes necessary to avoid unwanted shadows.

That's probably why so many people stick a light each side, even though it usually looks terrible and unnatural.
 
I went with Garry's suggestion of key+fill. The reflector wasn't throwing enough back and to remove the burden from someone else, I decided to go with the umbrella and head for fill. This seems to have worked well. A few shots the subjects got close to the hilite and got a little burned out at the edges by it, not too badly. Results from yesterday are here:

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=181667

One thing I hadn't expected was the HiLite and train moved a foot to the left during the shoot. The flash lighting the hilite eventually stopped lighting it as it didn't move, obviously, and popped out. I managed to catch this and reposition. The HiLite and train were on carpet. Anyone have any tips for keeping it still?

C&C welcome!
 
Chris, never put any back ground on carpet. It will always move. Even when you carpet tape the edges you will get shift and wrinkles. Needs to be carpet free if poss.

How did you light it in the end? 2 key lights at 45% shoot through middle and one or 2 heads in the Hi-Lite.??????

Trouble with one head in the hilite you may over rate the light to cover the whole bg. I use 2 heads and rate at what you shoot the foreground/subject. This will give you an even white bg with no drop off and no light burn on subject.

There should be no shadow what so ever using a Hi-Lite. Baffled by the above conversation. Subject should be at least 2ft from bg.....
 
Yes, although carpet-free environments are not always possible to avoid when on-site.

I had one lighting the HiLite at 1/2 power, which was just enough to blow the whole surface out. Less and I had darker spots. For the most part spill was ok unless the kids got too close, which of course they did at times.

I had another key off to my right and above, probably 30 degrees or so at about 1/5
The last head was just behind me as fill, at 1/16.
 
Not much wrong with those at all Chris :thumbs: I could be hyper critical and say the background light was a fraction bright, but they are on the right side of acceptable for me. Maybe try turning down the background lights until they go just grey, then back up a notch, but I'd be very happy with them as they stand.

I like the way you're experimenting with poses and expressions, and that is the important thing. Lighting is just technical stuff that you need to get right before you concentrate on what really matters.

When you show those pics to the family, I don't think anyone is going to say the background needs knocking back a stop. They will just say what great pictures!

Nice work :)
 
Totally agree
 
turned out very well chris well done
:)
 
Completely missed this when you posted it. Some great shots there, well done. Have you got any photos of your set up?
 
Can you put something in the bottom of the HiLite to weigh it down?
Might still move but not as much.
 
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